The Toronto Defiant’s Overwatch League season was mostly a success

Written for Daily Hive by Rui Yang Xu of Akshon Esports

After six months of competition, the fifth season of the Overwatch League has come to an end for the Toronto Defiant. 

After a 12-12 record to end the regular season tied for seventh, the Defiant had to compete in the Countdown Cup for a spot in the playoffs. During the Countdown Cup, the Defiant started the tournament off by making quick work of the Washington Justice 3-0 with DPS player Jeong “Heesu” Hee-su picking up the MVP honours. 

After dropping a series to the Florida Mayhem, the Defiant would lock in their spot in the playoffs by taking out the Boston Uprising 3-0 as well, becoming one of five teams from the west to have qualified for every tournament of the season. 

Submitted/Joe Brady

Unfortunately, the team’s run in the playoffs would ultimately be short-lived. In the first round of the Upper Bracket, the Defiant faced off against the Houston Outlaws, a team that they have beaten in the previous two meetings. However, this time around, with another new meta revolving around the new support character Kiriko, the Outlaws would get the best of the Defiant and 3-0. After dropping to the lower bracket, the Defiant would once again lose, this time in a close 2-3 score against the Hangzhou Spark, who went on to make a deep run into the top four. 

Despite the less-than-stellar performance in the playoffs, Adam Adamou, the chief strategy officer for Overactive Media, felt the season was still a relative success

“While we didn’t finish as strongly as we would have liked, the season had some highlights,” Adamou said. “Toronto Defiant qualified for every major tournament and playoffs, and as host of Canada’s first-ever Overwatch League tournament, Toronto Defiant secured third place earning their best finish in team history.”

Submitted/Joe Brady

Now as the league heads into the offseason, it’ll be interesting to see what changes the Defiant may potentially make for the 2023 season to build on their 2022 season which had some great results despite the uneventful end.